436 ANIMAL FOOD EESOXTRCES OF DIFFEEENT NATIONS. 



Zoophytes. — Actinia. — We have thus found that the 

 higher orders such as oysters and many other mollusca 

 are commonly eaten by nearly all nations. But leaving 

 the more familiar kinds aside, it would seem that 

 scarcely a single inhabitant of the sea, from the mere 

 shadow of a jelly to the roughest and toughest of shell- 

 fish, is spared by the insatiable, hunger of man. 



The shapeless red sea-nettles, that hang without shell 

 on the sides of submarine rocks or float about at the 

 mercy of waves, were a favourite dish as early as the 

 time of Aristotle, who praises their hard, firm flesh in 

 the wintry season, while the more fastidious Apicius 

 recommends them as best in September. Now they are 

 mainly eaten in Italy and the south of France, where 

 they divide the attention of seafaring men with the 

 countless medusae that sail in crowds through the ocean. 

 Roasted in oil, after flour has been strewn on them, they 

 are as palatable as they are nutritious. The tough and 

 indigestible Sepia, which in Venice the poor only venture 

 to cook, is a favourite dish of the Greeks, especially 

 during their fasts. They cut them lengthwise and 

 cook them fresh in saltpetre, which gives their meat a 

 bright red colour, or they dry them and eat them at 

 leisure, cooked with herbs and dressed with lemon-juice, 

 oil, and pepper. The smaller varieties, which are rarer, 

 are said to be better and more delicate. 



The deep crimson sea anemone {Actinia tTbrfi^iacffl), which 

 is found in the MediterraneaUj is esteemed a great deli- 

 cacy by the Italians. 



Mr. P. H. Gosse ("Naturalist's Rambles on the 

 Devonshire Coast ") says: " Dicquemare's testimony to the 

 excellence of Actinia crassicornis for the table, tempted 

 me to taste it, and I determined to take an early oppor- 

 tunity of cooking some. In a few minutes I collected 

 about half a dozen of different sizes at low water near 

 Wildersmouth, and having rubbed them with my 

 fingers in a tide pool till the coating of gravel was 

 pretty well got rid of, brought them home. I put them 

 into a pan of sea-water for the night to cleanse them, 



